One Reporting System, A Shared Mission: Protecting Children Online

Online child sexual exploitation is a global problem that requires collaboration across borders. As technology connects people around the world, the systems used to identify victims, investigate offenders and disrupt abuse must work together to ensure critical information reaches the right people as quickly as possible.

Last week, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) sent a letter to the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Center (I4C) regarding ongoing discussions surrounding the Supreme Court of India’s recent decision on reports of online child sexual abuse with a nexus to India. As these discussions continue, it is important to consider how potential changes to reporting requirements could affect the global response to these crimes.

For nearly three decades, NCMEC’s CyberTipline has served as the central global reporting resource for online child sexual exploitation. U.S. law requires online platforms based in the United States to report suspected child sexual abuse material, online enticement, and child sex trafficking to the CyberTipline. NCMEC provides analytical value to these reports and makes them available to law enforcement in more than 170 jurisdictions worldwide to help safeguard child victims and provide valuable information that law enforcement uses to investigate offenders. In 2025, 77% of CyberTipline reports involved a victim or offender outside the United States, highlighting the importance of this global reporting infrastructure.

NCMEC is concerned that requiring U.S.-based online platforms to submit separate reports to foreign agencies, such as the I4C in India, in addition to reporting to the CyberTipline could create duplicative reporting requirements, increase administrative burdens and complicate an already challenging process. Multiple reporting channels could also lead to inconsistences in information provided and divert resources from the critical work of identifying and protecting children.

These concerns are particularly significant given the volume of reports involving India. In just 21 months, NCMEC received more than 5.5 million reports of suspected child sexual exploitation with a nexus to India. Requiring dual reporting could result in I4C receiving duplicate reports from both platforms and NCMEC, without an established protocol to reconcile them. This could create significant challenges for Indian law enforcement, including increased investigative workloads, the potential for valuable analytical information to be overlooked and delays in taking action to identify and protect children.

This is especially concerning in cases of online child sexual exploitation, where every second counts and timely action can be lifesaving. Delays can mean missed opportunities to identify a child, intervene in ongoing abuse and prevent future victimization. When critical information is held up in the reporting process, children may remain in danger while offenders continue to exploit them. 

NCMEC recognizes that international collaboration is essential to addressing the global nature of online child sexual exploitation. Strong partnerships among governments, law enforcement agencies and technology companies are critical to ensuring children are identified, protected and removed from abusive situations.

As countries consider ways to strengthen their reporting frameworks, NCMEC encourages approaches that build upon existing international reporting infrastructure, avoid unnecessary duplication and support consistent information sharing with law enforcement around the world. Other countries have recognized the value of this approach by making exceptions to direct reporting requirements when U.S.-based platforms already report to NCMEC’s CyberTipline, helping avoid redundancies and potential delays.

NCMEC welcomes the opportunity to support India’s efforts to combat online child sexual exploitation through our operation of the CyberTipline. We hope to explore how NCMEC can continue to work together with all international agencies to ensure child victims of sexual exploitation are identified, rescued and safeguarded. 

The goal must remain the same: ensuring reports of child sexual exploitation lead to timely action to identify victims, stop abuse and protect children wherever they are.

Read NCMEC's full letter to I4C on the Global Platform for Child Exploitation Policy: https://www.globalchildexploitationpolicy.org/articles/advocating-for-efficient-reporting-obligations.